


8a8ysitting

by artsyAquarius



Series: Paper Lanterns Universe [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Babysitting, Cousins, Eight year old Vriska, Eleven year old Aranea, Family Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 13:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1107402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyAquarius/pseuds/artsyAquarius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aranea baysits her cousin Vriska.</p>
            </blockquote>





	8a8ysitting

**Author's Note:**

> I'm probably going to do a lot of these to develope the relationships between dancestors. By the way, my teacher made me read Treasure Island when I was 9, and Aranea's probably smarter then me, so yes, she's read it.

You’re all set; you’ve told Vriska to play outside, supplied her with your novelty magic 8-ball as well as some board games. You’ve taken out all of your books on your Aunt Marissa’s coffee table and began studying. You’re pretty sure the baby-sitting description includes spending actual time with your cousin, but you’ve got a lot of reading to do! Granted, it’s not exactly homework (you won’t get homework until high school!), but you’re eleven; you have to be responsible for your own reading.   
Your aunt has a really nice house. Yours is probably better, but your mother and Vriska’s are always trying to outdo each other. There aren’t as many books here as you’d expected, though. There’s the occasional adventure novel belonging to Marissa, but there aren’t any picture books for little Vriska. You once asked her if she liked to read, and she said it made her eyes hurt. You suspect her eyesight isn’t very good.   
The house has been silent for a while, and you’ve only just noticed. Before, you could hear Vriska shouting and pretending to be a pirate, or shaking the 8-ball enthusiastically, but now there’s nothing. With a jolt, you rush out the door, dropping your book. What if something happened to her when you were supposed to be watching?! What if she was unconscious?!   
You open the sliding door leading out to the sizeable back yard. You breathe a sigh of relief when you see your eight-year-old cousin standing up, completely fine.   
Then you see the spider in her hand.   
“Vriska! What are you doing with that?!” you shriek and run over to her. She glares at you and puts her other hand over the spider.  
“Shhh! You’re so loud, Aranea! You’ll scare ‘er!”   
“Vriska, put it down! It could bite you! Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to touch dangerous animals?!” You try to remember what to do in this situation. Should you call the ambulance just in case it does bite her? But if her mother found out, she’d kill you!  
Vriska puts a finger to her lips, smiling down affectionately at the spider. “It’s not gonna bite me. Spiders are my friends! Mom said she had a pet spider. ‘Sides, it’s only a li’l one.”   
You take a deep breath. She’s not panicking, so why should you be? But you did hear somewhere that smaller spiders were more poisonous….or was that scorpions? “I still think you should put it down. Don’t you think it’ll be happier making a web somewhere, and catching flies?” Apparently Vriska was still at the stage where she needed to learn that not all animals wanted to sleep in bed with her. Especially not spiders.   
She considers this, her little face scrunched up in a frown. “I guess….she’s tickling my hand, anyway.” You smile at her appreciatively, before she turns her hand over and the spider falls to the ground rather dramatically.   
You sigh. “Vriska….”   
“What? You told me to put her down!” she stares at you accusingly with her big blue eyes.   
“Yes, but you have to be careful! Spiders have feelings, too.” It looked like it was up to you to teach her the ‘animals feel pain as well, you know’ lesson.   
She pokes her tongue out at you. “Fine, Blabbermouth. I’m bored! What can we do?” You giggle. ‘Blabbermouth’ has been her nickname for you since you gave her a big talk about pirates after you finished reading Treasure Island.   
“Well…we can draw some spiders, if you want.” Her eyes light up at the idea.   
“Yeah! My spider’s gonna eat all your spiders! All of them!” she cackles, before scurrying inside and grabbing some paper and crayons.   
You’re surprised at how well she can actually draw. She’s got all the anatomy right; eight legs, eight eyes, all the body parts…pretty impressive for an eight-year-old.   
Her people aren’t as detailed yet, though. She’s drawn a lady with very long hair, a big coat and what you think is a hook for a hand. A female Captain Hook from Peter Pan? It’s her favourite movie, so it would make sense. “Who’s that?” you asked.   
She rolls her eyes, as if it’s obvious. “It’s my mom! She said she used to be a pirate. She’s got a hook like Hook cuz she’s awesome and the best pirate ever.”   
You knew by now that your aunt’s stories were make-believe, but you still like to listen to them. Vriska admires her mother greatly, and so do you. She’s rich and pretty and is the best at making up stories on the spot. Of course, you love your mother, but you take every chance you get to visit Aunt Marissa.


End file.
